American Banker Podcast

Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the CFPB, sent strong signals in a memo to all bureau staff last week that he wants to crack down on unscrupulous debt-collection firms as well as be less mission-driven and more data-focused. Kate Berry reports.

Dan Kimerling, an open banking pioneer turned venture capitalist who recently founded Deciens Capital, explains what open banking is, why an excessive focus on risk management prevents U.S. banks from adopting it, and why it would make sense for them to take on the platform model.

Venture capitalist Spiros Margaris offers a level-headed perspective on the hotly debated cryptocurrency alternative to traditional methods for funding young companies.

How politics, corruption, population growth and new technology are reshaping banking in Central and South America.

This week, Brett King interviews Ben Goertzel, chief scientist of robotics firm Hanson Robotics, about the strengths and weaknesses of Hanson’s humanoid Sophia robot. “We’re teaching her to understand what she sees and hears and hold conversations about what happens in her everyday environment,” he said. Goertzel, who is also founder and CEO of SingularityNET, a blockchain-based AI marketplace, shares how he’s trying to build interconnected artificial intelligence engines that can solve problems better than people can, yet also empathize with humans.

Jon Stein, CEO of Betterment, uses behavioral biology and machine learning to to make his robo-advisor software's suggestions continuously more intelligent and personalized.  

What’s in the Senate plan to scale back the Dodd-Frank Act and if it goes through, how will it impact bankers? American Banker reporter Ian McKendry reports on the potentially landmark legislation.

Bitcoin has passed $13,000 in value, and is now acting as a digital asset. But with the spike in value, many people are wondering if this is a bubble or just the beginning. Brett King hosts four guests: Brian Roemmele, founder of PayFinders.com; Bailey Reutzel, U.S. editor of Coindesk; Gabe Sukenik, founder of Morph Token; and Suleman Din, technology editor at American Banker and Financial Planning.

The battle for control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appears to be over for now. How will the winner, Trump-appointed Mick Mulvaney, reshape the consumer watchdog agency? American Banker Editor-in-Chief Rob Blackwell shares his inside-the-Beltway take on the CFPB’s future.

Jane Fraser, chief executive of Citigroup Latin America, talks about the dramatic changes the company has been making to its business model in that region and shares her perspective on how the new strategy is working out so far. She also touches on the unusual popularity of retail bank branches in Mexico, the digital push Citi is planning there next year, and what she sees as the three biggest differences between running a Latin American bank and a U.S. one – diversity, volatility and ethics.